North Korea Changes Hard-Line Defense Chief

North Korea has replaced its hard-line defense chief with a little-known army general.

Although no official announcement was made, a news report from the official Korean Central News Agency named Jang Jong Nam as one of the audience members at an art performance. He was identified as the minister of the People's Armed Forces.

He replaces hawkish General Kim Kyok Sik, who is believed responsible for the 2010 shelling of a South Korean border island that killed four people.

The change comes as the Korean peninsula is emerging from a period of heightened military tensions that followed the North's nuclear test in February.